Rifts
by Nemati
Summary: To Harry the three months of muggle school are a refuge from everything, even the Gryffs. He is finally free to be a normal teenager and he flees from his horrific memories in his artwork, and his new Slyth roomies. DARK. Abuse, rape, cutting and slash.
1. Worth

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter, who'd've guessed....

_Summary:_ To Harry the three months of muggle school are a refuge from everything, even the Gryffs. He is finally free to be a normal teenager and he flees from his horrific memories in his artwork, and his new Slyth roomies. DARK. R for abuse, rape, cutting and slash.

_AN:_ Finally, this story has been bugging me to be let out for such a long time. So here it is, please tell me what you think, it'll mean a lot to me.

Thanks to Seta Kaede for giving me the final incentive to just upload this instead of mucking around trying to choose a fic to focus on and publish. She did so by just saying she wanted to read other, longer stories by my hand, so here you go.

Rifts 

Chapter 1: Worth

"Can you believe it? We're actually going to a muggle school. I heard they were planning on sending the sixth years every year, we're so lucky to be the first...."

Harry couldn't believe it actually.

He was going back to the muggleworld and after already spending almost two months there he had his doubts about going back. On the other hand, the Dursleys wouldn't be there and this muggle school thing could be fun. He could actually make some muggle friends this time, without his cousin there to scare them off.

After considering his options, he decided that maybe he should be looking forward to it. After all, it would be three months without Snape. But no matter how fun it could be, he was thanking Merlin that it was only for three months and after that they would be back to learning magic.

The other person having doubts about this arrangement, most purebloods not withstanding, was, surprisingly, Hermione. "Ron, you do realize that this means a lot more work, don't you?" She harshly interrupted his bantering.

"I thought you liked schoolwork?" He teased her. 

"Normally I do, but we have our Newts next year and now we have three months less to prepare. At least they're giving us work to do while we're there and we don't have to follow the full curriculum for either school. What classes should I take, I've always liked math..." She strayed off, lost in thought.

Harry smiled softly at her wandering mind, but she was right, they would have a lot of work to do in those three months next to their Hogwarts homework, after all, they had to catch up with four years of whatever classes they chose. Luckily, well some students thought so anyway, they were going two weeks early to do just that, catch up, and to familiarize themselves with the muggleworld.

They could choose their own classes, with limits of course. They had to pick at least four classes next to the mandatory physical education and either English or maths was compulsory, just as they had to choose two from the list of physics, biology, chemistry, modern foreign languages (French), economy, geography or history and if then they had to choose one more from the entire list, which included art, music, drama, computing studies or religious education.

They could choose more, but seeing as they missed four years they needed the extra time to keep up. Only four years because they were put one year below where they would have been, that way the age difference wouldn't be too large and there was one year less to catch up on. Of course Hermione wanted to do as many classes as possible, but unluckily for her (and luckily for her stress levels) there was a limit of five.

Next to all of this they were given a load of theory work from Hogwarts on all their advanced classes. In other words, they had to do the work they would have done in those months and then catch up with the practical part when they got back. They were allowed to do magic, as long as they were discreet. No magic in front of muggles and fifty points for every memory charm that had to be cast on a muggle. Those were the rules and it had been made very clear that they should follow them to the letter.

"Harry? Hey mate wake up." Ron tried to poke him in the side to get his attention, but Harry avoided him with a graceful twist. Unfazed, the red head continued talking when he noticed Harry was finally listening "What classes are you taking? I think I'll take English and geography and maybe...."

"I don't know yet." Harry cut him off. "Look, Dumbledore told me to come see him after breakfast, so I'll see you two later."

Before either of his friends had a chance to say goodbye, he was already on his way to the headmasters' office. After using a shortcut behind a tapestry that was only there on Sundays and then only if you didn't eat breakfast, he reached the right hallway and made his way past the gargoyle (Fat Fast Fudge) and up the rotating staircase, to find the door already open. He knocked anyway and entered after the headmaster's 'come in'.

"You wanted to see me professor?"

"Yes, yes, sit down please, lemondrop?" The old wizard offered him a bowl of candy. 

Now sitting down in one of the very comfortable chairs and biting through a sour-sweet treat, Harry waited for the headmaster to start talking and tell him the reason he was summoned to the office in the first place.

"Harry, I'm afraid I have some bad news. Since you don't have a permission slip from the Dursleys you will not be able to go on the excursion to the muggleworld today. And next to that, professor McGonagall and I decided it would be wiser for you to remain at Hogwarts for your own safety."

"WHAT, you can't do that to me, I was actually looking forward to this and...." Harry took a deep breath and looked at the headmaster. The old wizard had been expecting such a response, it was written all over his bearded face and now Dumbledore was waiting for him to calm down so all his arguments could be countered. He would be send back to his dorm and still not be allowed to go. 

He wouldn't let that happen, he would have to play this game by the headmaster's rules.

Harry relaxed back into the chair, pulled his legs under him and leaned back into the pillows. "You're using the Dursleys as an excuse, just like you did in my third year, you know as well as I do they would never sign anything to do with Hogwarts, Why else don't you want me to go?" As he had said this, he had to hold back a smile. Dumbledore actually looked surprised, if only for second.

"I'll be perfectly honest with you. You know you are a target for Voldemort and it would be much saver for you to remain here at Hogwarts. We can't take any chances, you.... "

"But professor," Harry cut in, keeping his voice overly polite. "you made it perfectly clear that there would be no way for anyone to find us. Only the staff knows where we are, student's outgoing and incoming mail will be read and magically scanned, you have put up wards all around the school and dorms and we are allowed to do magic." If this was the best that Dumbledore could do....

"Harry, if you go you'll be putting the other students in danger." The headmaster gave him a sad smile and all that Harry could think was that Dumbledore was playing the guilt card. A familiar wrenching feeling made itself known in his gut, he had enough guilt of his own and he didn't need anyone adding to it.

"It would be just as safe for me as for the other students. After all, the muggleborns are a target too and what better way to discredit you than by killing off an entire class while they're away on an excursion. I don't even have to be there for them to be a target."

"Harry...." Dumbledore trailed off, expecting him to just give in.

Dammit, Harry cursed at himself, he was being patronised and he knew the headmaster didn't need to be rational or fair, he needed reasons why he actually should go. "As I said, the class is just as much a target as I am and I am not the leader of the DA for nothing, I rate the highest in the defence class and I have fought more battles than all the other students combined. If our position was found out, despite all the security, and there was an attack, me being there would actually make the students safer."

"Maybe, but not you and we need you alive."

That remark almost got him speechless, the headmaster had never openly admitted to his role in the war and he found he hated it, he just wanted to be normal. This was infuriating, it just didn't matter to Dumbledore what he was saying. "Professor, my life is not more important than those of the other students, no matter what any prophesy says, and I am not just your pawn in the war against Voldemort. I am also a student, a normal boy who wants to have some fun in his life before the war really takes off. I have refuted all your arguments and you have no reason to not let me go. Hell, I even gave you reasons why you should let me go." 

The headmaster looked resigned and sighed. "Alright Harry, you can go with the other students, but...."

"Thank you _sir_." And he got up and left the office before there could be any warnings given about what he should or shouldn't do. He was sick of this, he had taken care of himself almost his entire life, what gave them the right to interfere now.

They hadn't helped him before.

He didn't need them, he didn't need anyone, not anymore.

End chapter 1.

I hope you'll take the time to tell me what you think, or what I should change. 

Flames will be heartily laughed at and used to warm my cold feet and hands so I can be comfortable while I continue writing.


	2. Peace

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Harry Potter, but I'm using him without shame.__

_AN:_ I'm skipping along pretty quickly, I don't like to muck around too much with stuff that isn't interesting anyway. The good stuff is coming soon. I'm just getting you and myself into the story.

**Rifts**

Chapter 2: Peace

It had been a very long journey and after a full eleven hours of travelling all the students were exhausted. Even the adults accompanying them had become snappish and problems were dealt with swift and severe. Not that there were many problems, the students were way too tired to do much of anything.

First they had taken the train in Hogsmead to King's Cross, there they made their way to platform 2⅓ where they boarded another train, which was bewitched to be unplottable, untraceable and even had blinded windows so no one could see where they were going. When they arrived on another train station, of which no one but the chaperones knew where it was, they took a muggle train. After that they had to run to catch a bus and one hour and a long walk later they had almost arrived at the school. Before going up to the school, everyone quickly enlarged their luggage, so no one would get suspicious.

Waiting by the front gate of the enormous building, not as gigantic as Hogwarts but still very large for a muggle school, was a short, bald man wearing a neat dark blue suit. After he talked with Remus Lupin, one of their chaperones from the order of the phoenix, the muggle guided them across the grounds, through the school and to the dormitories, which were especially arranged for them since the muggle children didn't sleep at the school.

Now they were all standing in a broad hallway lighted by extremely bright white lamps and with the light reflecting of the even brighter white walls, it was like walking in a hospital. Even though the school had looked impressive on the outside, it was cold and empty on the inside, at least this part of it, they hadn't seen the school part after all. There were four other equally white hallways branching off the main one on their left and large windows on their right, showing the night sky.

"Alright everyone, pay attention please." The droning voice of their guide reminded Harry eerily of Binns, the history of magic teacher and the most boring person.... ghost, he had ever come across, until now that was, and this guy was still alive. "Now I understand your class is divided by 4 houses, so each house will have a hallway. I will see you all in the morning, good night." At that the man made his way through the mob of children and left, probably to go to bed himself.

Harry looked down the first hallway and noticed it wasn't really a hallway, but more a niche with two doors on either side. He walked back out and saw the houses split up to find their beds, which Harry thought would be a wonderful idea. 

The other Gryffindors had already walked past him to the doors in the first 'hallway' and into the rooms, while the Hufflepuffs took the corridor next to them, in the third set of rooms were the Ravenclaws and at the end of the main hallway were the Slytherins.

Following his dorm mates inside, he took in the room. It wasn't as small as he had expected. Across from the entrance was the door to the bathroom, which held a toilet, one shower and two sinks with a mirror on the wall above them. Walking past the doors after closing the one behind him, Harry saw that the room became much broader past the bathroom and held two bunk beds, one on either side of the room. In between the beds, under the window, was a table with four chairs. The room was as bare as the corridors and a lot smaller than their normal dorms, but it was only for three months and right now all of them were too tired to care.

That was until Harry realised there were only four beds and there were five Gryffindor boys.

This was his chance.

Maybe now he could get away from his overbearing roomies. No more people checking if he had slept, if he had been dreaming, if he had put up silencing charms again. No more having to talk after he had a nightmare, no more concerned glances and annoying questions, like if he was alright or did he want to go see the nurse.

Right when he wanted to bring up the lack of a bed, Remus Lupin walked in. Apparently he had noticed the fact that there would be a problem too and had come to solve it.

"Good evening boys." At their nods he continued. "As you've probably seen, you have only four beds. Now I'm afraid we can't just add another bed as this would go against safety regulations, so one of you will have to move in with the Slytherins."

Harry couldn't help but think how typically Remus this was, no twisting around the fact of the matter. He was also wondering if a little peace from the Gryffindors was worth rooming with the Slytherins.

"Slytherins? Can't we switch to another room or something?." Ron asked, clearly upset with the, to him al least, horrible arrangement.

But Remus quickly dashed in that hope. "All rooms are the same size and since every house has either three or more boys and girls, none of them can switch. You'll have to decide who will go."

"Oh man three months with the Slytherins, I wouldn't wish that on anyone." Came the dramatic tones from Seamus, who was already sitting on the left upper bed.

"I'll go." Harry made it sound like he was making a gigantic sacrifice, but on the inside he was cheering. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle would probably leave him alone if Harry ignored them, after all, they wouldn't want to fight for three months straight when they would have to sleep in the same room, would they?

"What! Harry, you can't go. Malfoy will probably kill you in your sleep or something." Ron of course, always quick to judge, but the other boys were trying very hard not to show their relief.

"Are you sure about this?" Remus asked, looking at him suspiciously. Apparently even with Harry's well known 'self-sacrificing' nature, they hadn't expected him to do this.

"Yeah, it's fine. Who else would you send? Ron? With his temper there would be a fistfight every day." At this the so called boy turned bright red, but didn't say anything. It was the truth after all. "And we just couldn't break up the love birds, now could we?" He said, forcing a smile on his face while pointing at Dean and Seamus.

"I can go?" Came the uncertain voice of Neville.

Now a true smile, though small, made it's way to Harry's mouth. "No offence Nev, but even though you improved a lot last year with DA and all, they would still eat you alive."

Neville gave a small nod, looking a little ashamed, but again couldn't hide his relief at not having to sleep in the same room as three sons of deatheaters.

"It's fine, I'll see you lot tomorrow at breakfast." At this Harry picked up his bags and made his way to the last corridor. Remus was following him, probably to make sure there wouldn't be any trouble. 

He couldn't wait to see the look on Malfoy's face when he realised he had to bunk with the boy-who-lived.

He had been right.

The sight was priceless.

The blond Slytherin was actually staring at him in shock as he entered the room and set down his luggage.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Was the first reaction he got.

Before Harry could answer anything, Remus walked in and explained the situation. Five minutes, one talk and three horrified slytherins later, Remus told them to go to bed and left.

"Drawn the short straw Potter?" Malfoy sneered, while making up his bed with the sheets and blanket that had been lying on the mattress. The other two boys were already lying in bed and were looking at the two rivals with interest, ready to interfere at any moment.

"Nope, I volunteered." He almost laughed at the look he got with that statement, almost. But tired as he was he made his way to the only empty bed, the one above Crabbe and across from Malfoy. Putting sheets on his own bed he realised how lucky he was to get the top bunk, it might be a higher fall if he had another nightmare, but at least he would be able to sit on top of comfortably when he couldn't sleep once again. Something that happened quite often nowadays.

All the while the blond had been muttering about things not being fair and having to put up with a bloody Gryffindork. 

Harry pulled a sleeping shirt and a pair of boxers out of his bag, but before he made his way to the bathroom to change, he turned to the Slytherin who was most likely to make trouble for him. "Look, I'm not any happier with this arrangement than you are." Well he probably was, but that had nothing to do with them. "And I'm not interested in fighting with you for three months while sleeping in the same room. So lets make a deal, I'll leave you alone, if you leave me alone. We'll ignore each other and we'll get by just fine."

"Fine, Potter," Malfoy snapped at him as he put on another shirt. "Just don't bring any of your _friends_ in here." 

While turning out the light and making his way to his bed, it suddenly hit him what a weird day it had been. Before clearing his head in order for his occlumency to work, as he had finally mastered it over the summer when he was taught by Dumbledore, he had a final thought that maybe now that his friends couldn't watch him twenty four hours a day anymore, he could finally have the peace to be who he really was, especially in the muggle world, where no one would recognise him anyway.

_No need to play perfect anymore so they don't worry._

He fell asleep with his mind clear and feeling like a great burden had lifted off his shoulders.

But he did forget one thing though.

His silencing spells

End chapter 2.

Wow it's actually 10:40 in the morning now, I pulled an all nighter, oops....

Thanks to: 

**Kagomepotter**, for being my first reviewer for this story and

**Oracale**

**Insanechildfanfic**

**Purity-in-Black**

**Gboygirl2002**

For taking the time to review.

I always love reviews so please make a donation down there, at that little box, yep right there, you got it, thank you. :)


	3. The Houses

_Disclaimer:_ Still not mine. 

_Warning: _In this chapter the darker stuff will start, the warnings are already in the summary. So if you don't want to read about it then why are you here?

_AN:_ I'm holding a **HOUSE CUP **competition. The questions are at the bottom._ Don't forget to mention your house. _If you don't know your house there are a lot online sorting hats you can visit.

More reviews for the last two chapters of _Rifts_ than the first 10 of _At Death's Door_, WOW.

**::::**Does a happy little dance**:::: **People actually put me on their favourites lists and after only two chapters, I can hardly believe it. 

Rifts 

Chapter 3: The Houses

_He couldn't breath._

_It was hot, cramped and completely pitch black dark_

_The feeling of fear was overwhelming._

_The darkness was closing in on him, choking him._

_There was something there...._

_He couldn't get away, he couldn't breath._

_No air..._

"....wake up, Potter will you wake up already!" Harry could feel someone shaking him and he responded as he always did when someone woke him up, especially when it was from a nightmare.

He froze. 

It took a few seconds for the feelings of complete fear and panic to ebb away and for him to realise it had been only a dream, but damn, it had felt so real that he was panting even now.

"Finally he shuts up, maybe now we can get some sleep." Harry recognized the voice as Malfoy's and turned away from the wall to see the blond glare at him from under his blanket. He looked downwards and saw that Goyle, in the bed below Malfoy's, had pulled his pillow over his head.

The bunk bed creaked and shifted as Crabbe got back in his own bed, apparently he had been the one to wake him up from his nightmare.

The nightmare... Ones like these were even worse than the ones that made sense, the feeling of fear still lingered, but his breathing was finally calming down some.

Terrified to fall asleep again, Harry sat up, swung his legs over the edge and silently jumped to the floor, the icy cold stone under his feet clearing up his head a little more.

He made his way to the bathroom and locked the door. Only after washing the cold sweat from his face, he let himself think back to the nighthorror. He couldn't help but shiver at the memory. He was really glad he was rooming with the Slytherins right now, they might not be nice, or even polite, but at least they let him be. Ron would've been all over him after such a violent nightmare, maybe even woken up Hermione. 

At least this way he had some peace to get himself back together before facing the world again. 

Ignoring his pale and exhausted looking reflection, he reached for his bag with toiletries. After rummaging around, he finally found what he was looking for.

His knife.

He rolled up his sleeve as high as he could and pressed the blade down on his upper arm.

After only the first cut he felt himself relax a bit and after two more he felt he might even be able to go back to sleep. The stinging pain would distract him from any unwanted thoughts or feelings that might crawl through his brain. The nightmares may be horrible, but he had to sleep if he wanted to get through the next day.

Methodically cleaning up the shallow cuts with some toilet paper and washing away the drops of spilled blood in the sink, he quickly removed any evidence. Now he just had to wait a little while until he stopped bleeding, so he wouldn't mess up his shirt and bed, and then he could go back to bed.

Ten minutes later he was as calm he could possibly get and crawled back under his blanket, trying to be as quiet as possible as not to wake the others, cast a silencing spell and tried to think about anything but the reason why he had been woken up in the first place. His thoughts immediately went to the situation he had placed himself into. He had expected his new roommates to respond differently to waking up in the middle of the night because of him, at least not this calm, but then again, they would probably torment him with it tomorrow.

That was the drawback to rooming with his second-down-the-list-arch-nemesis and to think that he had even volunteered for it. 

Well, actually, Malfoy was really more third-down-the-list, behind Voldemort and Snape. Of course he shouldn't forget about Wormtail, or Bellatrix, and Lucius Malfoy was a whole lot more dangerous than his son. Actually, Draco Malfoy didn't rate all that high on his enemies list, he might be annoying, but he wasn't really dangerous, not yet anyway. If he really counted, Malfoy came below Voldemort, all the deatheaters, and there were a lot of those, Umbridge, Fudge and Snape. 

Damn that was a long list for a sixteen year old.

And with that, to him at least, amusing thought, he fell back into a fitful sleep. 

Harry was surprisingly the last one to wake up the next morning, he must've been really tired if he had slept this long and hadn't even woken up from the noise his roommates were making, normally he was a really light sleeper, especially right after summer vacation.

The three other boys were already dressing themselves, in muggle clothing of course, getting ready for breakfast which would be served in the hall they had passed through on their way to the dormitories. Not wanting to be the target for ridicule this early, he kept quiet until they had left. Then, as not to miss breakfast himself, he jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower.

Fifteen minutes later he was walking into the makeshift cafeteria and couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sight before him. Everyone was sitting with his or her own house, hell the tables even had the same order as the ones in the great hall at Hogwarts.

He ignored the looks he was getting and sat down at the first table, which happened to be the one where all the Hufflepuffs were sitting. Smiling at Ernie and Susan, he grabbed some bread, cheese and a hard-boiled egg to make his breakfast.

"Harry, I don't mean to be rude, but why aren't you sitting with the Gryffindors?" Harry looked up at Hannah, who was sitting next to him and was the one who had asked the question. 

"I have eaten breakfast with them for the last five years. I thought I'd sit somewhere else now that we have the chance." Having said that he took a bite out of his sandwich and poured himself a glass of milk.

Suddenly someone started laughing. Harry looked up at the source and found himself looking at a brown haired girl, Perks he thought her name was, yes, Sally-Ann Perks. He didn't know her very well since she hadn't joined the DA.

"He's absolutely right," She said, still smiling widely.  "Everyone just automatically sat down as we're used to. So if you will excuse me, my housemates, Harry." The tall brunette picked up her plate, passed the Slytherins and sat down at the Ravenclaw table, next to Lisa and Mandy, who greeted her with somewhat confused smiles. No other students changed seats, but maybe they wouldn't be so house orientated at lunch. 

When everyone had finished, someone finally stood up from the grownup's table, where Harry spotted Remus, Mundungus Fletcher, their guide from last night and two others that had also accompanied them from Hogwarts, a woman and a man, who looked very much alike, both tall and blond. Harry didn't know them, but they had to be with the order, Dumbledore hadn't trusted anyone else to stay with them those three months. 

Well three months and two weeks actually, it was still two weeks before the start of the school year and in that time they would have to do most of the catching up to their muggle classes. He guessed they would get to choose their classes now, as their schedules still had to be made and of course because otherwise they wouldn't know what classes to catch up to.

It was the wizard Harry didn't know that stood up and addressed them. "Alright everyone, settle down." Surprisingly they did, but then again everyone was very curious about what exactly was going to happen. 

"I'll start by making some introductions first, as we..." He gestured towards the table behind him. "...will be the ones staying with you the coming three months. The man to my left you already know is Remus Lupin, next to him is Mundungus Fletcher." The man so called gave a wave and winked. "Then there's the representative from the school, mister Fischer." Harry thought mister Fischer didn't look very pleased to be there, probably because he had to miss two weeks of vacation. "Next to him is Chloe Tucker, my sister, and then there's me, Joshua Tucker." He smiled and grabbed a stack of paper. 

"Now on to your schedules. You won't be able just pick any classes you like," There were some disappointed sounds coming from all the tables. "because it wouldn't fit in the roster, but you can choose from several class combinations, which are all on this paper. Please make sure you hand it in before dinner." As he said this, the blond man, who Harry guessed to be about thirty years old, handed out the forms. 

"Tomorrow you will get your books, which are on loan from the school, so no studying today. There are games and art supplies in the cupboards over there. Everyone have some fun."

Harry smiled at Joshua's words and looked down at all the classes he could choose from. Damn, tough decision. He wanted some interesting classes, but he didn't want too much work. After all, he had magical theory work too.

Now lets see, he had always been pretty good at maths, so that cut his number of choices in half, since you couldn't have both maths and English, because those two were the classes with the most work and hours. Then there were geography and history, he hated those, so that left three class combinations to choose from, all with five classes including math and physical education. Definitely not modern foreign languages, he absolutely did not want to spend the next two weeks memorizing French words in order to make up for four years.

Two choices left, _maths, PE, biology, economy and drama_ or _maths, PE, chemistry, physics and art_. Not a very difficult choice as he had absolutely no interest in economy like he did in science and maybe physics, but he was hesitant at the art part, for very good reasons. 

Not hesitating for very long, he circled his choice with a pencil. He would just have to deal with the art class when he came to it. 

"Hey Harry, did you choose already?" He looked up to find Hermione standing next to him. He moved over so she could sit down on the bench.

"Yep, I took option five. Did you?"

"No, I just can't seem to make up my mind." She frowned at the paper in her hands, but put it down in favour of looking at him instead. "So, I heard you're sleeping with the Slytherins. Are they giving you a hard time? Did you sleep okay? You didn't have any nightmares did you?"

Damn, only two minutes and she was already playing mother hen. He placed his hand on the cuts he had made this morning and rubbed them slightly, the stinging keeping down his anger, both at her and at himself for lying, again. "Mione, I'm fine, it's only three months and yes I slept fine." He said. He hated lying to her, but she wouldn't leave him alone otherwise and on top of that, he didn't want her to worry, it wasn't necessary. "I'd better hand in my form, so I don't forget. Let me know what you chose, okay? I'll see you later." He gave her a thin smile and stepped over the bench to make his way to the adult closest to him.

"Dung, can I just give you my form? Mister Tucker seems to be a bit busy." He stood across from where Mundungus was sitting and shoved the piece of paper towards the ginger haired man, who this time thankfully didn't smell of booze. 

"Sure thing 'arry, I'll make sure 'e gets it." Harry grimaced a bit at that, after all Dung wasn't the most reliable person. The older man ignored the look and beckoned Harry to came closer. Making sure no one was close enough to hear what was being said he continued in a whisper. "I'll be watchin' you kids the comin' months, so if you ever need anythin', some booze, smokes, just ask me and I'll take care of it."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that." Harry straightened back up and smiled at the raggedy wizard. 

Perfect, a connection with the outside would certainly come in handy, especially since he had been out of cigarettes for a few weeks now, not having had the chance to buy new ones after he had gone to number twelve Grimmauld place that summer, and he doubted very much that they would be allowed to leave school grounds here. 

He almost asked Dung right there and then to buy him some packs, but thought better of it. It wouldn't do to be overheard after all, he would really rather avoid the scene that was sure to follow if his smoking was ever found out by certain people. Those certain people being Hermione, Remus, oh and lets not forget Hermione.

He spend the rest of the day avoiding the Slytherins, so they couldn't taunt him about his nightmare, and the Gryffindors, so they wouldn't smother him or throw a pity party about him having to sleep in the same room as those 'slimy snakes', as Ron so delicately put it.

Despite Tucker's words he started on his transfiguration work, since he was bored anyway, but got dragged into a very long game of monopoly by Dean, Hannah and Justin after lunch, which was finally won by Justin (Then you shouldn't have sold me your railroad station, now should you?)

Both at lunch and at dinner people had started mingling more with each other, divided into groups of friends instead of houses. Although Harry had eaten lunch with the same people that had convinced him to play a game afterwards, he was surrounded by Gryffindors at dinner.

"So how are you holding up?" Ron asked him after about fifteen minutes, looking at him with pity.

Harry rolled his eyes and answered, clearly irritated. "It's not a death sentence Ron."

"Might as well be." The redhead muttered in return.

"Hey Potter, I hear you scream like a little girl." Harry looked up at the table next to theirs, where most of the, now laughing, Slytherins were sitting. Apparently his new roommates had spread the word about his nightmare, because it was Theodore Nott, a Ravenclaw, who was taunting him.

He had to press his fingernails into his hands in order to control his temper. Dammit, he had really hoped they would wait with the terrorizing until they were back in their room. Stupid thing to hope for really, of course they would want to embarrass him in the most public place possible. 

Hermione looked at him disapproving. "So you did have a nightmare? Harry...."

"Drop it."

"We're just worried and you...." But he cut her off again.

"I said drop it. I don't want to talk about it and certainly not here." It came out harsher than he had wanted, but he didn't apologize. Didn't they understand that he really did not want to talk about his nightmares, about Sirius, Voldemort, any of it? You'd think that after two months of brushing them off, pushing them away, either by owl post or in person, they would, but nooooo.... They just had to stick their noses in his business.

"I'm going to bed." He stood up and made his way out of the room without looking at anyone. Once in the dormitory, he picked up his transfiguration book again, sat down on his bed, leaning against the wall and with his legs crossed, and continued reading from where he had stopped that morning.

He really needed to get his mind off things, anything was better than thinking about....

Shit, he couldn't even concentrate on some schoolwork. He threw his book towards his bag and leaned back, pulling his knees up to his chin and curling his arms around them. He didn't understand, usually homework would distract him enough, but not now.

He had worked so hard that summer to distract himself, with housework and homework during the month at the Dursleys and after he was allowed to leave, with the extra work and training that Dumbledore had given him, especially when it concerned occlumency. 

This was stupid, he was _letting_ himself get distracted. He summoned back his book and submerged himself in the text about mammal-arachnid transfiguration, not letting his thoughts wander again.

That's how he was found later that evening by a group of students, consisting of almost all the Slytherins, some Ravenclaws and surprisingly Ernie Macmillan, who immediately ducked back out the door, clearly not wanting to be seen in his present company. Harry thought he saw someone else standing outside the door, but he couldn't see who it was.

"Piss off Potty, we want to talk in private." Harry looked down at Malfoy, who was the one to order him to leave, but otherwise he didn't move. He was not going to be intimidated out of his own dorm.

"Then go somewhere else, I'm busy." He shot back.

"Why don't you go bug weasel and mudblood for a while, or is there trouble in paradise?"

"I have a better one, why don't _you_ go bug the Gryffindors? It's what you do best after all." He didn't wish Malfoy on anyone, but rather them than him.

Malfoy actually looked surprised at Harry's comeback, but instead of retaliating with words, he drew his wand. "I said leave, Potter."

Harry had already drawn his wand in reflex the second he heard the door open, keeping it in his hand, but out of sight, hidden behind his right leg. Even now he didn't raise it, not wanting to let this fight end up in a duel.

At the sight of Malfoy's wand, Parkinson immediately shot out her arm and pulled down the blond's arm. "We'll just use the girl's dorm. Let's go Draco." She said in a tone that made very clear that she wouldn't tolerate any arguments.

Malfoy lowered his wand slowly and turned towards her. "Fine." Was all he said and he steadily walked out the door.

Harry didn't look down at his book until the entire group hard turned to leave. 

"What an idiot, he didn't even draw his wand." He heard Zabini say, something that earned her snorts of laughter from most of the students. After that unknowingly unwarranted insult they moved to the opposite room in silence.

Harry raised his hand to put his wand back into the wandholster on his right arm. As he looked up he saw Parkinson looking at him, clearly surprised.

 "Maybe not such an idiot after all, hmm?" He said, smirking at her shocked face. "Thanks Parkinson, I wasn't really feeling like an exchange of curses tonight."

She sneered. "I didn't do it for you. I just didn't want to loose those fifty points in case a muggle saw him." She turned and followed the rest of them to the Slytherin girl's room.

Before Harry returned to his reading, he couldn't help but think that the next months were going to be _very_ tiresome.

End chapter 3.

Ah, almost twice as many words as the last chapter. ****

Here are the** HOUSE CUP **questions**. **_Don't forget to mention your house._

For 10 points: What's the big surprise for Harry when school starts?. Hint: It concerns one of the students.

And the last question will be valid throughout the story.

Earn five house points for everything that contradicts the canon series, and I mean something that is really wrong and that I should correct.

Thank you very much for the reviews, in alphabetical order:

**angel74 **and****

**ArwenMGranger**: Is this soon enough? **:) **

**DemonBlade**: Thank you, I'm honoured.****

**Insanechildfanfic**: Thank you again.****

**Jezikiah**: Thank you very much, I need that kind of incentive.****

**kagomepotter**: Thanks again, you'll always be my first **:p**

**Kimi-sama**:Sorry no yelling match, they were too tired, but things won't go too smoothly in the future, promise. Thanks very much for your review.

**Midnight33**: I'm very glad you find it interesting, I hope you like the rest too.

**Pamela**: Thank you very much.

**Purity-in-Black**: Thank you and you're welcome. I try to update as fast as I can, but keep in mind that I'm working on other fics too.

**SandiBebop**: Thanks for your enthusiastic review, I like stories about them going into the muggle world too, but most of them are too sappy for my taste or too focused on the romance, so I decided to do one myself. And I'm honoured to be on your favourites list, thank you.

**Yuri3**: Thank you for reviewing and I will definitely write more.****

Heh, heh, everyone wanted to know about his nightmares waking up the Slyths. Hope I haven't disappointed you, but they were too sleepy to really argue. 

Please review, I love them, I do, I really do.** :)**


	4. Of Gryffindor

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own squat, least of all Harry Potter.

_AN:_ The **HOUSE CUP **competition is still running. The questions are at the bottom._ Don't forget to mention your house. _If you don't know your house there are a lot of online sorting hats that you can visit.

_IMPORTANT__!_:I apologize, because I had to change some things in chapter two and three. This was because of two reasons, one was that a plot change suddenly hit me and I had to change the people entering the room Harry was in (chapter three), and the second was that I suddenly found more fifth years in book five, so now there are seven Hufflepuffs instead of five and eight Ravenclaws instead of seven. Again I apologize. Although I think it would be better for the story if you reread it, it isn't completely necessary since I just told you what I changed.

_DELAY_: And sorry this chapter took so damn long, as I said I had to change some things in the plot and there were other stories in the way that just wouldn't let this one out of my brain. There was this rampant plotbunny of a LotR crossover running around in my head and I had to squash it before I could start writing this. Watching the extended version of The Two Towers, complete with three hours of specials didn't help either.

_O.W.L.S_: I have absolutely no idea how the O.W.L.s are counted. I only know that Percy and Bill both got twelve and they both went on to become headboy, so that has to be pretty good. What I did was count the number of Outstandings as one O.W.L. and the Exceeds Expectations as half an O.W.L.. That got me on a number that seemed about right. We'll find out how it all works in the next book.

I decided to put the review responses at the top so you don't feel cheated about the length of the chapter, and I started out with writing one for everyone, but the list got almost longer than the story itself, so everyone who just gets my eternal gratitude is mentioned by name only. Thanks all, you're what keeps me writing. In alphabetical order:

**Amirathis **~#~ **axavi** (sorry no points) ~#~ **darkanglefrmhell** (Double thanks)~#~ **DaughterofDeath **~#~ **insanechildfanfic **~#~ ** Insanitys Plaything** ~#~** kagomepotter **~#~ **Lady S **~#~ **Purity-in-Black **~#~ **Runa LilyAnna Snape **~#~** Sekra**

And here are the people who get answers next to my eternal gratitude:

**ArwenMGranger**: Thank you very much, but I have to admit it's not an original concept, them going into the muggle world, but I try very hard to make the rest either original or have it based on some very well thought out reasoning. After all, I myself have never read a fic with the entire class going to muggle school together and certainly not in such a dark setting, most of these kind of fics are either humour or fluff. I'm still very glad you like it though. **:)**

**Demon Rising - A Slytherin**: Thanks for reviewing, but sorry, no points. Draco doesn't share all of Harry's classes. And I think you're absolutely right about Goth/punk Harry. (Ssshht, it's a surprise.)

**emeralddragonofslytherin**: Thanks, and yes there'll be a lot happening with Harry and Draco in the future, but they won't go from enemies to friends, or lovers, in only a few days, it'll take time, but in the mean time..... 

**Katrina**: You're absolutely right about Dudley, if you tell me your house I'll give you two points for that since you're the only one. **:p **As for Nott, it doesn't say what house he's in, only that he's a _weedy looking boy_ and that one of his parents is in the inner circle of the deatheaters.

**magicrules**: Thank you, thank you, thank you, that was just what I needed to know.

**MiruSedna**: Is this soon enough? Probably not... **:p **And no, no inconvenient stains. There meant to be just thin lines, not serious wounds and he knows better than to rub hard enough to open them. Maybe I did give the wrong image, so I changed it a tiny bit, just to take away all confusion with future readers.

**MistressBunnyLicker**: Nope sorry, I used every name that was mentioned in the sorting, but for trying I'll give you another hint. The scene plays during one of the care of magical creatures mentioned, that should help a bit. But ten points to Slytherin for your other answer. Congratulations, you just earned the first points for your house.

**PLEASE UPDATE**: You name alone.... **:) **You have some really great ideas and I'm certainly going to use some of them, although some might go into 'Reality'. As for relationships, this will be H/D, but I might throw in someone else. Thanks for reviewing, twice even, and getting my writing juices flowing again.

**Ready or not, come an find me**: That was actually the rudest review I have gotten up until now on all my stories combined and it wasn't even about the story. That actually made me feel pretty good **:p **It was also the dumbest. No it's not logical that because the book is written by an English author all the teachers in England go by the title professor. **magicrules** was kind enough to answer my question and apparently the right way to address them at a public school is Mr and Mrs, so there, neh. **:b**

**Rin DeRomanus**: You kinda misread my question, but thanks anyway, it's useful information for me, seeing as I'm from the Netherlands and had to do a lot of research about the English school system to get even this far.

**SandiBebop**: :::Chants::: "I got a stalker, I got a stalker." And indeed, Harry-Draco oh yeah, who can resist?

**Wynjara**: Thanks for reviewing, but no, no Dudley, he's at Smeltings and I hate him. And absolutely no golden boy Harry in sight. He isn't evil, but also no longer the naïve little Gryffindor. I actually have my own theory on the difference between Slyths and Griffs, but I'm using that in an other story, which I'm planning to write in the future.****

Because this chapter contains a lot of descriptions and explanations, I made it extra, extra long, with a bloody encounter and lots of angst, cut up by conversations to keep it interesting. I hope you like it and if something isn't to your liking, please tell me.

Rifts 

Chapter 4: Of Gryffindor

The next morning they were given their 'books', which turned out to be syllabuses especially made for them, one for each class, containing a sum up of the previous four years and the material for the coming three months. All the people who chose the art class, which weren't that many Harry noted, were also given some supplies that weren't already available.

Harry had already leaved through some of it when they first got them and it seemed a lot of stuff to go through in only two weeks, but it was doable if he didn't slack off too much, which he wasn't planning on doing anyway.

That morning, during breakfast, the topic of conversation eventually turned to what he had been dreading since he stepped on the train to Hogwarts; the O.W.L.s.

"Come on Hermione, with your amount of O.W.L.s you don't have to worry about anything, you can become anything you want after Hogwarts."

Harry almost flinched at Ron's remark, that certainly was not a smart thing to say to Hermione.

"The fact that I did well on my tests does not mean I can _or will_ work less hard now. And neither should you, you _do_ want to graduate with good grades, don't you?" Of course everyone could know from her tone that answering _no_ would mean certain death.

"Of course I do.... I just think there should be some time to relax, you know...."

Luckily for Ron, Seamus broke into the conversation. "How many O.W.L.s did you get Hermione?"

"Fourteen." She said proudly. 

Seamus actually stared at her with open mouth. "Fourteen? Jeez.... I was happy with my nine. How about you Ron?"

"Seven." He answered morosely. 

"But that means you can't be a prefect anymore." Seamus flapped out, looking at Ron with pity.

But Ron just shrugged, to everyone's surprise. "I was a bit disappointed about that of course, but at least I did better than the twins. It might not be brilliant, but I'm happy, mum too, she and dad even bought me a new broom."

"Cool, what kind?" Seamus asked enthusiastically, glad to skip the painful subject, even if he wasn't a quite as fanatic about quidditch as Ron, then again, no one was. 

"A nimbus 2000, can you believe it? I practiced a lot too this summer, so I can stay on as keeper."

Harry almost sighed in relief at the change of topic, but of course Hermione rather talked about school than sports. "Harry? You never told us on the train how you did on your O.W.L. s."

Immediately the attention was back on track and everyone at the table was looking at him.

"Uhm, well...." He stuttered.

"Oh Harry," Hermione cut in pityingly. (yes that's an existing word) "Did you do that bad? There are many other things you can do than becoming an auror you know."

"Yeah mate, you can always go pro as seeker." Ron added.

"Can I see you results Harry, please? I just want to take a look." Hermione asked sweetly.

Harry figured he should just get it over with, he wouldn't get out of it anyway and this way he at least wouldn't have to deal with Ron's reaction every minute of the day, as would have been the case at Hogwarts, since they didn't sleep in the same room.

At his hesitation Ron tried to get an answer out of him, but he was only making it harder. "Did you get six? Six isn't that bad you know. Or did you get five?" To Harry it sounded like the redhead was trying very hard not to sound happy at the thought of doing better than the boy-who-lived.

In the end he just grabbed the letter with his results out of the back pocket of his pants and handed it to the very curious looking girl in front of him.

Hermione quickly scanned it over, looked at him with wide eyes and turned back to the letter, before looking up again, smiling widely. "I don't believe it, how....?"

Harry couldn't help but give a small smile at her reaction, but then again, it wasn't her he was worried about.

"What? How many did he get?" Ron unsuccessfully tried to look at the results.

"Twelve, he got twelve." Her tone was soft and she still looked too shocked to react.

Ron pulled the piece of paper out of her hands, almost ripping it, and started reading. "_Twelve!_ Bloody hell mate. How did you manage that?"

"He studied of course." Hermione quipped and turned back to Harry. "Congratulations Harry, I always knew you had it in you."

"No you didn't." Harry teased her. "You were just as surprised as I was, but thanks anyway."

"Wow," Seamus exclaimed. "Now you can be an auror."

Harry just nodded. He could indeed become an auror now, he even got high enough grades to get into the N.E.W.T.s potions class, but he wasn't so sure if he really wanted to become one anymore. After all, working for the ministry was not something he considered a dream career. Next to that was of course the prophecy. He would be the one fighting Voldemort and if, that was _if_, he even survived the battle he doubted he would be interested in more fighting after that. But to start with, becoming an auror would be the best training for that battle that he could get, so he was undecided as of yet.

He hadn't told his friends of the prophecy yet and he doubted he would. He didn't want their pity or worry and he certainly did not want them following him into battle like they did the years before. Last time they were lucky, but next time they might al end up like Sirius.

Dean handed him back his results and he read them once again. He had been so surprised when he got the letter, it was so much better than he had expected. Then again, it was one of the first times he really worked hard for a test. For years he had just wanted to be normal, average, and had slacked off with the best of them, but after Voldemort had been resurrected with his blood it had become very clear to him that he would never be normal, however hard he may try.

Then in his fifth year he was again placed in an extraordinary position, the position of a teacher. He had enjoyed it too, it had felt like he was finally taking some control over his own life. And on top of all that he hadn't wanted to disappoint McGonagall. She had put a lot of pressure on him with her rant at Umbridge, but he had taken it to heart.

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_Please find enclosed the list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term for all sixth years begins on Sunday 18 August and _

_the train leaves at 11 am from platform 9¾ as usual._

_Below you will find your O.W.L. results.  _

_Please choose at least five classes out of your list of available classes._

_An owl will be expected no later than 4 August and _

_you will receive notice if your chosen classes are approved as soon as possible._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy headmistress._

O: Outstanding, E: Exceeds Expectations, A: Acceptable, P: Poor, D: Dreadful 

Transfiguration: Theory: O, Practical: O

Potions: Theory: E, Practical: O 

Charms: Theory: O, Practical: O

Defense against the dark arts: Theory: O, Practical: O+

Astronomy: Theory: A, Practical: A

History of magic: A 

Herbology: Theory: E, Practical: O

Care of magical creatures: Theory: O, Practical: O

Divination: Theory: E, Practical: P

Total number of O.W.L.s: 12

N.E.W.T. Classes available: Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defense against the dark arts, Herbology, Care of magical creatures, Divination.

Harry couldn't help but smile at his list, especially at his potions grades, Snape must've been in complete shock when he found out. Out of his available classes he had only dropped divination. He may have found it a somewhat interesting subject, especially with Firenze teaching, but he would rather avoid another year of making up disasters and getting his death predicted now that Trelawney was back.

"How the hell did you get an outstanding for potions? You hate potions." Ron said, trying to sound flippant, but not quite succeeding in hiding his hurt tone. Harry immediately got the feeling that Ron felt like Harry had betrayed him by getting a good grade for a subject they both were supposed to hate.

Harry looked up at Ron when the boy said this, he was very worried Ron was going to go on a jealousy trip again, with the feelings of betrayal already written all over his 'best friend's' face. "It's Snape I can't stand, potions is okay."

"Why do you have a plus next to your outstanding for practical defence? Did they find out about you teaching DA or something?" Seamus asked quickly, trying to lighten the heavy mood a little.

"I think it's because of my patronus, the examiner asked me to show it to him." Harry answered, turning his attention away from Ron, but the redhead apparently still couldn't accept how well Harry had done.

"You got higher than an outstanding?" With that exclamation Harry had enough of Ron's seemingly 'innocent' queries and opened his math syllabus to start reading, while Seamus, who had gotten the hint, turned the conversation to saver grounds.

Ron was a good friend most of the time, they had a lot of fun together and the redhead backed him up whenever he needed it, but Ron could also be quick to jump the gun, had the temper and violence of an active volcano, could be an enormous bigot and not to mention the jealousy of his wealth, fame, attention and anything else he could come up with.

Of course, the funny thing was that Harry was just as jealous of Ron, mostly for his family and, compared to himself at least, his easy stress free life, but also for his confidence and the ability of making friends so easily. Unfortunately Ron would never see it that way.

Harry had kept a close eye on Ron's reaction now, knowing what Ron had said about him loosing prefect status was a lie. The redhead would never have reacted so calmly and just accepted it, he would've been furious and very disappointed. Ron had been so happy when he was made prefect, when he was chosen over Harry. Now here he was with high grades and once again Ron was left behind by his friends. The only thing that could make it worse was if Harry became the new prefect and there was a good chance of that happening now.

Last year he would've trusted Ron to be happy for him and not be too jealous or angry, but after what happened on the train to Hogwarts three days before, he was sure this wasn't the case. It was a good thing Ron didn't remember anything of the incident, he had made sure of that.

_Flashback._

_He wasn't sure what was wrong with him, he felt like he was suffocating_

_It had started in the compartment he was sharing with his friends. They had started asking questions about his summer, how he felt, Sirius, all things he really did not want to think about. Now he was standing in a cramped bathroom on board of the moving Hogwarts express._

_He put his hands on the cool sink and leaned forward, looking at himself in the mirror, a tired and too thin face, covered with ugly glasses stared back at him._

_He had excused himself as quickly as possible when the conversation had focused on him, evading the questions whenever he could, but now that he was alone once again the memories haunted him. If he closed his eyes he could actually still hear the voices and the screaming and.... His eyes shot back open. It was taking so much out of him to keep those thoughts away that he was panting slightly, his face was flushed now and his eyes glazed._

_He needed something, anything to stop these feelings._

_So he did what he had done ever since the summer had started, he pulled his new pocketknife out of the front pocket of his faded and much too large jeans and flipped up the sharpest blade._

_He had to hurry, before they came to check up on him. He rolled up his right sleeve, pushed aside the bandage that was already on his upper arm, switched the blade to his left hand and pressed the knife down next to some older cuts._

_He released his breath in hiss of relief, his muscles unclenching and his eyes nearly falling closed in bliss. No more suffocating memories and feelings of despair and guilt, nothing more than the pain and the relief._

_Again he cut into an unblemished piece of skin..._

_"Harry? Are you in here?"_

_He almost cursed out loud when he heard Ron's voice. Hermione must've send him to check up on him. _

_"I'll be right out Ron." He quickly responded, his voice sounding a little panicky. Getting caught by Ron was the last thing he wanted._

_Too late._

_Ron opened the door and walked in, letting the door fall closed behind him. "What are you doing in here that's taking so...." Ron gasped. "Dammit! What are you doing? You're bleeding!" _

_Harry looked down on his own arm and was annoyed to see that he had cut much too deep when Ron had startled him. The blood was leaking onto the sink and floor, smearing the white tiles with bright red._

_Ron jumped over to him and knocked the knife out of his hands. "I don't believe it... you actually tried to kill yourself." Ron grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard. "You selfish basterd." Harry looked at his so-called best friend in shock. "How could you do this to us. Didn't you for one second think about what you would do to your friends, huh, did you?!"_

_"Ron, stop it please." He was feeling sick, whether it was because of the shaking, the blood loss or the surging guilt caused by Ron's words, but he really wanted to vomit his soul out somewhere._

_Ron was shaking him a little less harshly, but still pushed him with every word. "You actually are that selfish, after everything we did for you, with everything you have, you try and off yourself. You'll probably become the new prefect and team captain too this year. What were you thinking?"_

_He had enough and pushed Ron away from him, gasping for breath, but instead of explaining or making up excuses, he pulled out his wand and with one flick and one word the whole incident would never leave the room._

_"Obliviate."_

_End flashback._

He felt a bit guilty for doing that, it could've gone horribly wrong, but it had worked out and Ron didn't remember anything other than that he had come to look for him and found him just as he came out of the bathroom. Of course this also meant that Harry couldn't help but look at Ron differently now and his behaviour had changed too, while no one had any idea why.

"....Harry, snap out of it." Ron jabbed him harshly in his side, annoyed that he wasn't listening to what had been said.

"What?" Harry snapped at the painful interruption of his thoughts, slightly rubbing where the elbow had hit him.

"I asked what classes you were taking here?" Neville said softly, clearly uncomfortable asking it again when Harry was glaring at Ron like that. 

Harry's glare faded away and he looked at Neville, feeling a little ashamed at his harsh tone. "Oh, uhm, maths, physics, chemistry and art, oh, and p.e. of course."

Dean looked at him in surprise. "You're taking art? I've never seen you draw before."

"I used to do it all the time when I was little, but now it's just something to keep me busy during the summer."

"Physics, maths and chemistry? Are you mad? Those are the most difficult classes you could choose." Lavender looked at him like he was indeed crazy for doing such a thing. 

"At least I don't have to read books for my literature list for English or French classes." He defended himself.

"No you have to learn all these formulas, equations and molecular structures etcetera. Personally I think that qualifies as hell." Parvati quipped in, throwing him exactly the same look.

"Well I'm glad I took English, history, geography and drama." Ron added. "I may have to read more, but it's only learning facts, so in the end it's less work." 

"You do know that you can't sleep during history here, don't you Ron?" Hermione said, hiding her laugh behind her hand.

"Oh very funny.... ha ha." Ron wrinkled his nose at her. "What classes did you choose then, miss-know-it-all?"

"Math, economy, biology and music. I wanted a bit of variation, not just facts or sums."

"I picked English, biology, geography and drama." Neville joined in to the conversation. "I just hope I can everything done in time. It is a lot of work."

Harry turned back to the maths book in front of him, not that he had or would read a single line because of his musings, but it was better than listening to the other Gryffindors talk about why their choices were better. Why did they have to judge everything he did, every choice he made? It wasn't like they knew everything about him.

Of course they all assumed he, like all the others who were raised in the muggleworld, had only had a basic muggle education because he had gone to muggle primary school. The wizard raised on the other hand got a special education focused on preparing them for magic school. They learned more about grammar, maths and many other subjects in the same amount of time, plus several classes to help prepare their own magic, like meditation and focus techniques.

But what his classmates didn't know, and he wasn't going to tell them either, was that he probably knew more about most muggle subjects than any of them and, funny enough he had Dudley to thank for that. At primary school his cousin had always bullied him into making his homework for him and of course his aunt and uncle had never done anything to stop this, rather the opposite. If he didn't do what Dudley said, he would get in a lot of trouble. He found it was a lot easier to just do the work instead of complaining, even now that was the case. So during the summer he still did Dudley's homework, even if he didn't have the same classes, and because the assignments were about everything his cousin had had to learn that year, he had to read all the books. Failing grades were not an option.

At least now he got something out of all the hard work. Maybe if he kept up, he could get his diploma for a muggle education after he finished Hogwarts.... 

Neh, who was he trying to kid? He would be trained for war, fight and probably die in battle, hopefully taking Voldemort with him. 

But there was a slim chance he would survive... Maybe he would consider it then. After all, if he did survive that meant he probably had a hand in defeating Voldemort and he would be even more famous than he was now. That would be a good time to disappear into the muggle world. 

Harry almost snorted at his own thoughts. Him dreaming about his future... what was the use in that? Pulling himself away from his somewhat morbid thoughts he went back to his choice of classes. 

He liked maths, he always had. He liked the logic, the searching for an answer and then the feeling of accomplishment when it finally made sense. It was a shame really that Dudley would most likely drop physics and chemistry this year. But at the moment he already knew most of the stuff that was in the syllabus, so he could just leaf through it, practise some of it and make the assignments. That would leave him with more than enough time to work on his work for Hogwarts, design a lesson plan and practise for the DA, which they probably would start up again this year. Well, he would like to continue with it, maybe even expand a bit, now that it wasn't illegal anymore. He should discuss it with Dumbledore when they got back.

He was once again pulled out of his thoughts of planning when apparently breakfast was over and almost everyone made their way either to the dormitories to get their books or outside for some fresh air. After about twenty minutes the plates and leftovers had been cleared away by Hannah and Susan, who both had clean up duty that day, and the tables were filled with books.

Hermione, Parvati and Neville had returned to her places at the table after they had retrieved their syllabuses and were now silently reading. Harry figured the others were probably outside, Dean did say he wanted to introduce them to football (soccer).

Two hours later the cafeteria / work hall, was once again filled with students, most of them trying to get a good start on their work. Others, like Dean and Ron, were immersed in a game of snap, with muggle cards of course, something that Ron apparently wasn't too happy about ('But the exploding is half the fun').

Everyone was busy, but Harry was bored. He had had enough of maths that day and he was considering what to do next. In the end he decided to just start with his artwork. He had gotten a syllabus for that too, filled with techniques, examples, assignments and even some art history. It was also the only class that he had no experience in since Dudley had never gotten any written homework for it and had dropped the class after his third year.

As he started reading he noticed there was a lot more art history involved in the course than he had expected. He quickly read the first chapter and then skipped over to the section that was about the actual drawing and the techniques they would be using. It was very interesting and he quickly got caught up in the text and illustrations.

He usually only drew what he saw or remembered, almost never something from his fantasy like Dean did, and his absolute favourite was drawing people. It was always very difficult to get the emotions to come out right, especially when you had to resort to body language, but when they did... It was very rewarding and much better than drawing, say, a bowl of fruit.

He was completely immersed in the art of art, the best ways to add depth, the right proportions of a human, the different pencils, paints and other materials, the lighting and shade, it went on and on. He read till lunch and then continued after they had eaten. He had never known there was so much to it.

Later that afternoon he returned his books to his dormitory and searched his clothing bag for his shrunken trunk, which held most of his magical books and the possessions that he wouldn't need straight away. After making sure there weren't any muggles around, he enlarged it and pulled out one of the sketchbooks he had bought a few summers back.

After he had shrunk his trunk again and carefully placed it back in the side compartment of his bag, he picked up a pencil he had gotten with his art supplies and heaved himself on top of his bed. At least there he had the calm and quiet to work in peace. It had been a while since he had actually sat down to work on a sketch, mostly because he had been so busy with schoolwork and training, but also because every time he tried to picture something to draw he saw Sirius falling through the veil.

Strangely enough it had gotten better when he had arrived at number twelve Grimmauld place. After he had mastered occlumency, the horrifying visions of both Sirius and Cedric, and the ones that Voldemort had been sending him, had stopped, even though they did frequently appear in his nightmares, and he had finally had a peace of mind he hadn't felt in a very, very long time. But of course by then he had been kept so busy, he simply hadn't had the time to sit down and draw, that or he had been too tired.

So now, after more than a year, he held his sketchbook and pencil once again, hoping that when he closed his eyes to visualise something to put on paper, he wouldn't see dead faces or falling bodies.

He let his eyes fall closed and forced himself to relax.

Nothing...

Only darkness and the ceiling light through his eyelids when he lifted his head. No images filled with pain were being forced on him by his own mind, no Voldemort trying to drive him insane or to his death... nothing.

He let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding and let his muscles relax a little more.

Now, what to draw? There weren't any people to draw, so he would have to do something from memory. He tried very hard to focus on a happy memory, like quidditch or his friends, but it didn't work, even with those came strong feelings of guilt and pain and he quickly pushed them away, before he would resort to stronger measures. He kept one of his two knives close with him all the time now, just for occasions such as this, when memories and feelings felt like they would overwhelm him, but he wouldn't use it now, now he would focus on drawing.

Then a picture came to him and it was definitely not a happy one and neither were the emotions that accompanied it.

Feelings of fear, despair, anger.... 

A dementor.

Somehow this was much easier to handle than trying to think about positive things, maybe because he was in control of what kind of pain he felt, or maybe because there was less guilt.

As he drew, the memories started drifting to the surface, the billowing black cloak, the skeletal hands, the rattling breath, the sucking sounds, the cold, the grey skin, the empty sockets where eyes were supposed to be, the shapeless black hole that was its mouth, the paralysing fear.

_"Not Harry, please no, kill me instead...!"_

He could almost hear his mothers words whispered in the air. 

As he finished with the last few strokes of his pencil, he looked at what he had created on the paper. Not a happy picture indeed, it practically radiated fear and despair, but he was glad he had gotten it out of his system, like his pencil had taken the horrible memories from his mind and put them into the paper.

And for the first time in months, he didn't feel the urge to cut himself, hurt himself, to have some kind of relief.

He closed the sketchbook and put it back into his trunk, which he then shrunk once again before putting it away in his bag. This book he wouldn't show to anyone, he would use another one for art class, this one was personal.

End chapter 4.

HA! Take that. Over 4500 words of pure story. I was planning to put the first day of classes in this chapter, but it just got longer and longer and longer.... The next chapter will be here soon.

I know I gave Harry very high grades, but I gave you reasons. I did read the O.W.L. piece of the book a few times to help me guess what he would get and it seemed to me he did pretty well, but he just doesn't have a very high opinion of himself, something that would be only natural after living with the Dursleys for his entire life.

Next chapter: 'And Slytherin'

Mundungus Fletcher, a worried Hermione, more drawing and when you live with Slytherins for weeks, there has to be some things you learn about them. Plus the first day of classes.

House cup points stand thus:

Slytherin: 10(to MistressBunnyLicker)

Hufflepuff: 0

Ravenclaw: 0

Gryffindor: 0

And two points for whichever house Katrina is in. (If you don't tell me, I'll make you an honorary Hufflepuff.)

Come on people, you can do better than that, I dare you. So here are the new** HOUSE CUP **questions**. **_Don't forget to mention your house._

For 15 points: What is different about Harry's drawings? 

For 10 points: Why is that a problem?

For 20 points: And how is he going to solve it.

_And this last question will be valid throughout the story._

Earn five house points for everything that contradicts the canon series, and I mean something that is really wrong and that I should correct.

Please review, I'm getting addicted to them and I need my fix **:)**


	5. And Slytherin

_Disclaimer:_ Who? Me? Own Harry Potter? :::Snorts::: 

_AN:_ Everyone guessed my questions wrong. Hihi, this means I did my job right and it will still be a surprise. :)

I made a new profile and I personally think it's pretty funny :::Giggles:::, but you can just read it for yourself.

This chapter is dedicated to pink-fogg, who pointed out some things about the English school system so I could correct them. I might still make some mistakes, but I only have knowledge from my own school days in Holland and from TV (and those are mostly American schools), so please forgive me for any future mishaps.

So math had become maths and science has become chemistry, just so you know.

Review responses.

68 reviews for 4 chapters OH YEAH, I love you people and I love reading and answering my reviews, I actually look forward to it so much I keep checking my stats about every thirty minutes the day after I upload a chapter. 

Concerning the questions, since almost everyone thought it was just about putting the emotions in his drawings or having them radiate emotions, I'm not giving points for those answers, sorry. The right answer will probably be in the next chapter by the way.

Thank you all so very much for reviewing and all the enthusiastic messages, help and answers.****

**athenakitty ~#~ blackdragonofslytherin ~#~ Caedesdeo **(5 points, congrats my fellow Slyth)** ~#~ ****darkanglefrmhell **(I'm glad you agree with my choices, and sorry, wrong answer)** ~#~ Elessar ~#~ FroBoy ~#~ Insanechildfanfic **(Brilliantly thought off, but wrong)** ~#~ Jgfjghkg ~#~ katkitten ~#~ Katrina **(5 points for a partial answer and your other 2 have been awarded to Ravenclaw :)** ~#~ lilkuma-chan** (Cookies! **:) **Just what I needed)** ~#~ Limegreenlion **(:::Blushes:::)** ~#~ magicrules** (You're welcome, thanks, and you're right, 5 points to Slytherin) **~#~ MiruSedna**: (Sorry, wrong answer, but I'm very glad you like my Harry)** ~#~ MistressBunnyLicker** (For you? Anything.**^_**^)****

**Demon Rising**: Ooh, a cinnamon bun... And morbid is good, but no, it's not dementor Harry.

**jack4**: I'll give you five points for your first answer and although the rest of your enlightening and very well thought out reasoning will actually play a part in this fic, it has nothing to do with this answer. Great try though, one off the best.

**NiaSphinx**: Thank you very much for those wonderful complements. As for your answers, I'm afraid to say you were wrong, but try again next time (I did make them very difficult and tricky on purpose). I know what you mean about _they go into the muggle world_ fics, they can be very unrealistic, that's one of the reasons why there are so many facts in this fic, I'm a very logical person and when something doesn't make sense in a fic it often annoys me (magic doesn't count). I recognized something in your review that I always do myself when telling someone something is wrong with their fic, we walk on out toes, as we say here in Holland, meaning we explain that we mean well and we're not flaming and such. Annoyingly enough, it's often necessary too, because people don't appreciate the trouble you go through to help them with their fic. So I hereby thank you for pointing out the mistakes and I will fix them in the future, but right now I'm focused on the next chapter. Thanks again.

**Ophite68**: Although that's not such a bad idea to use in a fic, it's not the complete right answer, but I'm giving you 10 points for guessing that exposure to muggles would be the problem. Congrats on the first points for Hufflepuff. I'm actually planning on writing a pro-Hufflepuff fic in the future, although I might give quite a different view of that house than most people do **:) **It will be called 'Hidden', but it's still in the early planning stages. Have you ever read 'Sins of the Past, Present and Future' by 'The Angelic Vampire'? It's an amazing story with a Hufflepuff scene to die for. **^_**^ Her other stories are very good too.

**oracale**: One hour... that's how long it took for you to review after I updated. **:)** Hiya! The answer is almost right, but not quite what I meant. Sorry my fellow Slytherin.

**pink-fogg**: I could kiss you.... but unfortunately this screen is in the way, ^_^ I changed it by the way, because I think it's very important to have fics based on correct information, whether it's fictional or reality. That's also why I put up that last question, it motivates people to point out small mistakes so I can correct them and they don't bug any future readers. Congratulations, you earned the first points for these questions and the first for Ravenclaw. Although it's not completely right, I am giving you 10 points for guessing why there would be a problem, even if you didn't get the problem completely right, but you still get 5 for that too. Anyway, enough babbling, thanks so much for reviewing and taking the time and effort to give me all these facts.  

**PLEASE UPDATE**: Sorry it took so long, but I had al these other fics in the way and the plot just kept bugging me, but I got it up and now the chapters should be coming a lot faster. And I'm very glad you like it.****

**Sekra**: Thank you for that wonderful compliment. I know exactly what you mean about cutter fics, they can be very unrealistic and that always annoys me too. Often it's like, oh lets write a cutter Harry fic and have him start with almost slicing his arm off. This is of course ridiculous, cutting starts slow, but then becomes very addicting. And I'm babbling again, glad you like it.

**ToonTownCutie**: I'm gonna give you 10 points for that answer, because you actually came the closest to guessing with saying that _they are slightly real_, congratulations my fellow Slytherin.

**Wynjara**: I always wondered about why they could skip such an education too, I mean, how can the entire wizarding world function if they don't have basic knowledge of geography, biology etc. Of course it can be explained away, which I will do, by saying that they can learn such things after magic school, for example biology in medimagic school or something, after all wizards live much longer than muggles. I tried to put some logic in the fic by saying that purebloods actually learn more basics like that in wizard primary school and muggleborns could get classes in the summer before attending Hogwarts. Why not Harry then? That will be explained later.

Rifts 

Chapter 5: And Slytherin

"And what would you know about that weasel, your grades are so low you can't even be a prefect anymore." Malfoy sneered as he always did in these kinds of fights.

Ron turned an alarming shade of red, immediately proving to Harry that he had been right about Ron's reaction to losing his prefect status. If the redhead was ready to blow his top because of one comment now, then he must've taken it really bad when he first got the news.

"Maybe so, but at least I'm not a ferret deatheater wannabe." Ron yelled back.

And this would be the point where they draw wands.... 

Yep he was right, what a surprise.... These fights were becoming really predictable. 

"Harry, can't you stop them? This is gonna end badly...." Hermione pleaded. 

She had a point. Normally the two of them would stop Ron before the situation got too out of hand, but... "Hermione, you know more curses and hexes than anyone and you're a pretty good dueller, if you want them to stop, stop them, but leave me out of this."

"You're not even going to help Ron? He's you're friend."

Help him? Didn't she mean stop him from listening to his anger instead of reason.... again?

He remembered Ron looking at him with that same look of anger, jealousy and hatred he was giving Malfoy right now. No, he wasn't going to help him, or stop him for that matter. Their hatred was older than their years at Hogwarts and he had been dragged right in the middle of it, mostly because of his fame. Let them fight it out and get punished by themselves for a change. They would probably keep fighting with each other for the rest of their lives, just like their fathers.

He was so tired of fighting.

"I'm not gonna involve myself in their family feud, especially not now that Malfoy and I have a truce, well... sort of... But we have to sleep in the same room for the next three months and I'm not going to ruin our agreement now." 

"You'll still have to sleep with Ron for almost two years." Hermione snapped at him. "Malfoy probably knows all kinds of dark spells, Ron could get really hurt."

"Malfoy probably does know dangerous spells, but that doesn't mean he'll use them now, and Ron...."

Hermione made a growl like sound in frustration. "I can't believe you. Of course he'll use them, he's a Slytherin, he'll use any advantage he can get."

"As I wanted to say before you interrupted me," Harry glared at her in annoyance. "Ron had an outstanding in practical defense, just like us, he'll know what spells to use to defend himself." 

"If he remembers them in his anger." She snapped back.

"That's his problem. If he doesn't, maybe he'll learn something out of it, like keeping his temper in check."

She actually had the nerve to gape at him in shock and make him feel a little guilty at his words, even if he knew them to be the truth. 

"Look, Ron wants to fight in the war after school and if he keeps reacting this way it's going to get him killed. He won't be able to afford to lose his temper on a battle field, especially not if it means he'll forget everything he has learned." How could he make her understand? For everything she had been through, for everything she knew, she had no understanding of what a real war was like, of how definite death was. "No more schoolboy fights which can be easily fixed by the nurse, no more detentions or points taken. It'll be serious and he'll die." 

He felt a cold hand clamp around his heart as he realised that everyone who was now staring at the exchange of insults between two schoolboys would be sucked into this war the moment they left the school, if not sooner, and it didn't matter on which side they would be or if they had chosen to stay impartial, most of them would not survive.  

Hermione was still looking at him strangely. Maybe he had been a bit too cold? Did he have the right to take the last moments of childhood from them, just to make them see that in the future it wouldn't be a game anymore? 

Those questions didn't matter anymore as Malfoy fired off the first spell, a rictusempra. The tickling charm was most likely just meant to embarrass, but as it speeded at Ron in the form of silver light the redhead put up a shield. 

Harry heard Hermione sigh in relief, but the respite didn't last long as the shield wavered and disappeared, and Ron fell on the ground twitching, the teen had even dropped his wand. 

Two seconds later the fight was over and a triumphant looking Malfoy stood over Ron, who was now in a full body bind. "Tsk, tsk, weasel, you're too easy, no challenge at all. Now lets see what you look like covered in warts, shall we." 

Malfoy pointed his wand, but Hermione had already raised hers. "Expelliarmus!" The Slytherin's wand flew into her hand and the blond himself fell backwards. 

Before Hermione could unfreeze Ron, she was already under wand point by Parkinson and Goyle, leaving Crabbe to help up Malfoy. To Harry's surprise, instead of indeed unfreezing Ron like she had planned, Hermione pointed her wand right back at them.

Still Harry didn't do anything. He knew he should help Hermione, but he also knew that it would make the situation much worse if he interfered now. It would end with a full battle between two sides, a lot of hurt people and many points taken.

But he wouldn't walk away either. He saw only one solution, it would be a blow to his pride and probably make him look like a coward, to both sides, but he didn't care anymore, it was better than the alternative.

He flicked his right wrist to make his wand shoot into his hand, causing more people to point theirs at him and he saw most of the DA members draw their own wands to back him up if needed.

"Finite incantatem." He said as he waved his wand at Ron. He picked up the fallen wand and waited for the Gryffindor to stand up before giving it back. Of course it was immediately pointed at Malfoy and the other Slytherins.

Harry looked at his classmates standing around him in a circle. Two sides with their wands drawn and the spectators. 

He raised his wand....

And put it back in its holster as he turned around and made his way out of the middle of group of stunned looking teens, feeling very grateful that they moved out of his way.

"Harry!" Ron yelled after him. "What are you doing?"

"Well, what do you know, the golden boy is a coward." Malfoy jeered at him.

Harry snorted at them both as he turned back, but not in humour. He had really, really had enough of this. "I won't be a part of his pathetic skirmish between the two of you. Grow up!"

With that he turned around once more and left the cafeteria to go back to his dorm.

He couldn't help but think that had this been a real battle in a real war, every single one of them would've been death. Not just the instigators or the ones who joined in, but also the spectators. 

At least now he knew what to change in the DA. Until now they had just practised spells and that had gone very well, but none of them knew anything about a real battle. He wasn't just talking about the use of such childish spells either.

Ron's shield had been worthless because of his lack of focus, again the redhead had let his anger rule him. Hermione should've revived Ron immediately, not let herself get distracted, and what was up with her disarming spell? It had barely pushed Malfoy to the ground, even if she had taken his wand. As for the rest of the DA, they knew better than to cause such a small fight to evolve into an all out battle. 

Malfoy had done very poorly too, even if he had won, the Slytherin hadn't paid attention to his surroundings at all, letting Hermione disarm him easily with an almost powerless spell.

Now he snorted at himself. What was he doing? 

Of course they didn't know how to fight in a real battle and of course they used childish spells. They were still children, all of them.

They hadn't had training by Mad-Eye Moody and Dumbledore for a month. They hadn't had 'Constant Vigilance' drilled into them every time they had done something wrong. They had been on nice vacations to far away lands, just like they should have been.

The old retired auror was really starting to rub off on him with his paranoia if he was starting to think like this, but it had been worth it. For the first time since he had learned that Voldemort was after him, and especially since he had learned that the final battle would almost certainly be between himself and the Dark Lord, he had a feeling that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to make a small difference in the future.

Even if he wouldn't dare to get his hopes up, wouldn't dare to believe he could possibly survive, he would do anything, absolutely anything, in his power to take Voldemort with him when he died.

He hadn't been a child for a long time now, the summer had made that very clear, and he would do _anything_ in his power to make sure that others could still enjoy their childhood, even if it meant pushing his friends away even more because otherwise they would just get dragged along with him again.

He would protect them any way he could and no one else would die or suffer because of him.

That thought made him feel both like a load had fallen of his shoulders and incredibly sad for some reason, of course there was the ever present wave of guilt too.

And it was that familiar feeling that made him speed up as he walked to the dorm, already fingering the small knife in his back pocket.

*#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#*

"Harry?" Hermione started, interrupting his reading as she sat down across from him at the table. "What happened yesterday? I mean, normally you would have blown up at Malfoy or at least have stood up to him."

"Maybe, but that would've started a big fight and you know it."

"I don't like you like this." Harry glared at her when she said this. She had that thoughtful look on her face that told him she was trying to make sense of something, most likely him. "Last year your temper got you in a lot of trouble and I'm glad you've gotten it under control, but now.... You've become so cold. You hardly talk to us anymore, hell I hardly see you anymore. You don't join when the others are playing football...."

"I've changed and if you don't like it.... tough luck." He interrupted her preaching, before going back to his book, ignoring her.

"Yes, you certainly have." She said, her voice so low he had barely understood it. He didn't respond this time, instead focussing on the text in front of him.

There was an uncomfortable pause and Hermione picked up her own books. Both were trying to work despite the tension, but Hermione apparently was too wired to read.

"Is that charms?" She asked, breaking his concentration again. "You should really be working on your muggle classes. They start in only a few days and I've hardly seen you work on them at all. You do realise that if you don't get a passing grade here you'll have to go through this all over again next year and probably repeat your seventh year because you failed your N.E.W.T.s."

Harry glared at her over the top of his book. Even when he was actually working she found something to rag on him about. "I know that."

"Then why aren't you working on the assignments for those classes?" She scolded him.

He sighed, irritated, and lowered his book. "Because I already finished them."

"You did?" She looked astonished. "Wow, I'm impressed."

Harry gave her a tight smile. For a second there he thought she wouldn't believe him and would continue nagging.

"Harry, why have you been so distant lately?" She asked softly. "Is this because we couldn't spend the summer with you? We apologized for that, I mean, I was on vacation with my parents and Ron and Ginny were in Egypt with their brothers and with you not being allowed to leave the house..."

"I know and I'm not mad about that." He cut in to stop her babbling. "I just want to be left alone. I don't want to talk about my emotions or listen to you telling me what I should or shouldn't do." He knew he was being harsh, but it was the truth and he tried very hard to keep his tone as soft as he could.

"Is that why you volunteered to share a room with the Slytherins?" 

He looked up at her face and he knew he had hurt her, but the thing was... She hurt him too, every time she asked him how he felt, every time she wanted to know about his nightmares, every time they talked. But he would not lie, not to her. She had stood by him even more than Ron and had at least tried to understand him. He just couldn't talk to anyone right now and least of all her, because she knew exactly what to ask to get the strongest reaction.

So he answered, truthfully. "Yes."

"You can't close yourself off like this, you need to talk to people. Talk about You-Know-Who, the coming war... Sirius...."

He immediately locked himself down again, not allowing the emotions that her words called up to surface. "I'll talk when I feel like it."

At that moment he spotted Dung and he remembered he still hadn't asked for those cigarettes and with all the stress of his studies and friends he could sure use some. It was also the perfect way to get away from Hermione and her questions.

"We'll talk later Hermione, right now I need to ask Fletcher something." He said quickly, stuffing his books in his bag and making his way towards the raggedy looking wizard, who was actually looking better than normal. He figured it was the lack of drink, because the man didn't have his usual blood shot eyes and didn't smell like a liquor store.

"Hey Dung," He glanced around to check if anyone could hear him. "that offer still standing?"

"Hmm, the one about playin' supplier? Sure, what do you need?" Mundungus said in an equally soft tone pointed his wand to his black pipe, muttering an '_inflamare_' to light it. 

"Think you can get me some cigarettes? I took enough money with me, so I can pay you back immediately."

"You smoke?" For a second the ginger haired man looked surprised and Harry instantly regretted asking for it, the man would probably tell on him and when Remus found out..... "Don't worry, won't tell a soul. 'ow many do you want? I can get some to you about once a week or so."

"Two packets should be more than enough. You won't tell Remus, will you?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Nah, like I said, won't tell a soul. You already 'ave enough people messin' with your life."

Harry smiled brightly. "Thanks Dung, you don't know how much it means to me to hear someone say that."

"Your welcome 'arry and try to stay out of trouble this year, hmm."

"I will." He picked up his bag and went back to his dorm, planning on working on the last assignment for his art class, making a drawing with ink. Good thing he was used to working with it, he would just use his quill to trace the pencil.

As he walked he thought back to Dung's words. At least now he knew why the man had offered to supply him with anything he needed. He had no reason to leave the premises now, not that he had been planning on doing that for any reason and especially not for a smoke, but he was known to skip around certain rules. He had to hand it to Dung, that was one of the smartest and sneakiest ways of keeping him out of trouble he had seen so far.

And he even got some cigs out of it.

Arriving at the dorm, he ignored Malfoy, who was lying on his bed reading something, and picked up the sketchbook he used for his class assignments, his syllabus, a pencil and an eraser, and made himself comfortable on his own bed, sitting with his back against the wall and his legs propped up to support the sketchbook.

He leaned his head back against the wall and thought about what to draw. His last assignment, as he had read in his syllabus, was to draw a composition that had a horizon and shadow to create dept and had to be made with ink. In the end he decided to draw a street, viewed from above, with taller and shorter buildings and a road in between both sides (I actually made this for art class 6 years ago ^_^). He picked up the ruler he used as a bookmarker in his syllabus and started with a basic composition. 

As his eyes strayed forward in thought about where to place the side road, he noticed Malfoy had headphones on and held an old walkman in his hand, listening with concentration, pressing the buttons now and then, even mouthing some words while scribbling down something. From what Harry could tell, Malfoy was practising French, that was after all the only class that had gotten a walkman for loan. 

He couldn't help but smile at the sight and could barely hold back a snigger. Who would've thought that Malfoy would ever use a muggle machine, let alone know how to work with it?

For about half an hour the two of them had been working in peace, ignoring each other completely. Harry had finished the basic sketch and was ready to start adding details, when the door opened. He looked up at the distraction and saw Parkinson enter.

The blond girl threw him a single glance before walking over to Malfoy and tapping his shoulder to gain his attention. Harry looked back to his sketch, trying very hard to seem like he wasn't looking at them through his eyelashes and listening to every word they were saying. No one had ever accused him of not being curious.

"What is it Pansy? Can't you see I'm busy?" Apparently Malfoy could be just as nasty to his fellow Slytherins as to anyone else. The blond boy turned off his walkman with a click of the button and sat up on his bed, his legs dangling over the edge.

"No need to snap at me, it's just, we still can't figure out how to make this thing do fractures." She held out one of the small calculators that had been given to everyone who would need it and handed it to Malfoy, but apparently he didn't know how to either, because after a few minutes of fumbling he cursed and stabbed it in the direction of the waiting girl, who took it back.

"There was a reason why I didn't choose math, you know." Malfoy said, sounding annoyed.

"You still have to use one for chemistry class though." She countered

Malfoy glared at her. "I know that." He paused for a second and his glare softened. "Did you ask Blaise?"

"Yes, but she could get it right either."

If they had been anyone else, Harry would've offered some help, but they weren't and he stayed quiet. If they wanted his help they would have to ask for it.

"Potter... I know you're listening." At Malfoy's words Harry looked up, keeping his expression guarded. "Why don't you do something useful for a change and tell us how to work this stupid thing."

He could have taunted them about knowing more than them or about them having arithmancy and still needing his help with maths, but instead threw them a very cold look. "I thought I had made it very clear I don't take orders, especially not from you."

"Fine." Parkinson turned around to leave. "I'll tell Blaise to ask Mandy for help."

"Parkinson." Harry called after her, continuing after she had turned back towards him. "You could've just asked."

"You want me to beg for your help?" She sneered at him. "To go on my knees?"

He glared at her with a ferocity that surprised all three of them, surprise that was quickly hidden behind the blank masks he knew so well on the faces of the two Slytherins. "I think you got me confused with the other parselmouth." His tone was as ice cold as his anger at them for even thinking he wanted something like that. "I don't want you to beg, I want you to ask, like you asked Malfoy here." He jabbed his head at the blond boy on the bed across from him. "If you want my help you'll at least have to be polite."

Parkinson seemed to struggle for a moment before walking back to him. "Well, will you help us then?" She looked like she had eaten a lemon, but she had asked.

The magic word, 'please', was a bit too much to ask apparently, but Harry let it be. If he wanted any interaction with the Slytherins that was at the very least civil, he would have to compromise and pushing them was not an option, he would still have to sleep in the same room with three of them for another three months after all.

"I said so, didn't I?" He answered and held his hand out for the calculator, which she handed to him. He put his drawing equipment on his pillow and jumped off the bed to sit down at the small table under the window. Parkinson sat down next to him and Malfoy laid on his stomach on his bed and was very busy pretending not to be following every word of the forcedly polite explanation.

When they were finished, she took back the calculator and stood up. "Thanks Potter."

"You're welcome Parkinson."

Maybe, just maybe, there could, somewhere in the future, just be a small chance they would be able to follow the sortinghat's warning from the year before after all.

"Look Potter, I don't know what's going on in that empty head of yours, but just because you're acting weird doesn't mean I won't still make you pay for what you did to my father." Malfoy threatened in a strangely subdued kind of way, before turning his walkman back on.

Or maybe not.

_For our Hogwarts is in danger_

_From external, deadly foes_

_And we must unite inside her_

_Or we'll crumble from within_

(A/N Good ending, neh? Don't worry, I promised the first day of classes, so here it comes.)

*#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#**#*

The first day of classes was preceded by a growing tension in the wizards and witches. Now they would actually have to put everything they had learned in the last two weeks into practise, whether it was their schoolwork or new knowledge of all things muggle.

They had had two lectures by the muggle studies teacher, professor Franklin, on muggle education, habits and even machinery and electricity before they came here. That had been the reason why they had to go to Hogwarts in the first place before leaving for, or returning to, the muggle world. 

But knowing it was a very different thing than living it. They would have to act exactly as muggles all the time, as not to raise any suspicions when they interacted with the teachers and other students of the school. This would be especially difficult for the wizard raised, even if most of the purebloods were planning on interacting with the muggles as little as was possible while sitting in the same classroom with them.

The cafeteria during breakfast that Monday was the noisiest it had been in the last two weeks and that was including the fight of the Thursday before. Everyone was discussing what classes they had, who they had them with and what it would be like.

Harry had stopped paying attention to the conversations around him almost from the start, he knew what muggle school could be like and his experience hadn't been fun, Dudley had made very certain of that. Of course he didn't want to think of that right now, he just wanted to make the best of the coming three months. 

At Hogwarts he never had any problems like he had had at his primary school, mostly because he was pretty popular due to his fame and quidditch skills. Not counting the periods he had been shunned by the whole school of course, but those had always blown over with time. 

He didn't care about being popular here though, he just wanted to fit in, wanted to make some friends, wanted to be normal, but not be bullied because he was short, skinny and had to wear glasses.

At least he wasn't famous here and could fall back into the anonymousness he had been so used to before he came to Hogwarts, both in- and outside of school. He didn't know what was worse, no one knowing or caring about him or everyone thinking they knew him and smothering him with attention.

After breakfast everyone who had class retrieved their bags and made their way to the other side of the school where the classrooms were.

They had been given the big tour a week before, so no one had much trouble with finding where they had to be, including Harry.

His first class that Monday morning was art and art history and he was looking forward to it. As he sat down in the very large, light room, with lots of windows and desks, he wondered if they would start with the art or the history part that day, but took out his sketchbook, despite not knowing what they were going to do, to work on an assignment he had read about in the part of the syllabus that was for the coming months. 

He didn't look up while the class started filling up, at least not until his concentration was broken by someone speaking to him.

"Harry Potter?" His head shot up at the sound of his name, he hadn't recognized the voice so it couldn't be one of his classmates. So someone had recognized him? Here, in the muggleworld? 

"Yes?" He answered the girl in front of him. He didn't know her, but she did have something familiar about her, maybe he had met her during the summer. She was dressed in the same manner as the group he had gotten to know when he snuck out of the house during his month at the Dursleys, with her bellbottom black jeans, dark blue tank top and many pieces of silver jewellery, including a small ring through her bellybutton.

She did look familiar, but not from this summer. She had short light brown hair and bright blue eyes, both of which were surrounded by a thick black line of kohl and eyeliner. He couldn't tell how tall she was since he was sitting down, but it was probably taller than him, just like everyone else.

She smiled. "You don't recognize me? No of course you don't, I wasn't wearing make up yet when we were ten." Again he tried to place her, but he still couldn't tell who she was.

"I'm Abigail Hunter, we went to school together, we sat together in class."

His eyes widened when he heard her name. "Abby? I don't believe it. You go to school here?" She gave him an amused look. "Yes of course you do. It's great to see you again."

"Nice to see you too." She sat down next to him, letting her bag fall onto the table with a bang. "So what are you doing here? Last I heard you were at St Brutus's Centre for Criminal Boys, or something like that."

Harry groaned. He always knew that lie would haunt him for the rest of his days.

"I don't go there, my family just hates me...." 

End chapter 5.

Over 4800 words of pure story this time.... And there's still so much more write.

House cup points stand thus:

Slytherin: 30

Ravenclaw: 22

Hufflepuff: 10

Gryffindor: 0

:::Snorts::: I know they were trick questions, but 50 points scored in total with all those reviews and most of them were for partially right answers... You are intelligent readers **^_**^ and I know most of you have a wonderful imagination... So use it! Never go for the obvious with me.

And where are all the wonderful Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, I'm not against any house you know, I just don't like Ron **:p. **I like Hufflepuffs. I'm actually planning a fic called 'The Hidden' in which you'll see a whole different side of Hufflepuff, Helga Hufflepuff that is.

And here are the new** HOUSE CUP **questions**. **_Don't forget to mention your house, even if you have told me before._

For 10 points: Who will Harry draw in the next chapter. Hint: It's not Malfoy or Abby.

For 15 points: Retry: Now that you know what the (partial) wrongs answers are, guess what's different about Harry's drawings. (The answer will be in the next chapter, I promise.)

For 30 points: Now that Harry's connection with Voldemort is blocked by occlumency, what's going to happen to Harry? (The answer to this will be shown throughout the coming chapters.) Hint: I won't give you one, maybe next chapter if no one guessed right.

_And this last question will be valid throughout the story._

Earn five house points for everything that actually contradicts the canon series, and I mean something that is really wrong and that I should correct.

:::Chants in a very (annoying) high voice::: "Feed me, feed me." :::Hides cinnamon role and cookies behind her back::: "I need more, pretty please with a cherry on top."

I am aiming for the 100 reviews with this chapter, especially because I really like the way it turned out. Greedy I know, but help a girl out, hmmm.


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